Tue September 25, 2012

Preservation Jazz Hall Band Releases 2 Albums

And now from the up and coming we turn to a band celebrating its 50th birthday.

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GREENE: That's the sound of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, named for the Jazz House in the French Quarter where they play. To mark 50 years, the New Orleans group is releasing two albums today.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

After Hurricane Katrina, Preservation Hall was closed. It's open again now, but the band pays tribute to those struggles on "St. Peter and 57th Street." The album is a recording of a performance at Carnegie Hall featuring guests like the rapper Yasiin Bey.

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GREENE: The other release from the bands today is a four-disc anthology. There's music recorded from the 1960s through the 1980s, and some of those tracks were salvaged from a flooded studio in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

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GREENE: This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.